The two women never said much to each other, although undoubtedly they were communicating on a level less pedestrian than mere words. In any case, Caridad never knew some things about Esmeralda that Francisco el Penitente very soon made it his business to find out, like the fact that she was a trained social worker and had also been working as the assistant director of the new rape crisis center in Albuquerque for the last few months.

If Caridad did not speak to her, it comforted Esmeralda nevertheless, just to sit at her little wooden kitchen table, knowing that Caridad was in the next room praying for her, because although Caridad never said it, surely that is what she was up to in her little bedroom with the incense burning.

Praying for Esmeralda but not knowing why, and maybe Esmeralda could have figured it out for herself if only Caridad had ever said what was on her mind, but nobody was talking to nobody about nothing and everybody meanwhile was in a constant state of the willies, feeling like they were being followed all the time, because of course, they all were. So when Francisco did make it apparent he had followed Esmeralda to her employment one day, instead of being on guard and taking all the advice she gave to the women who came to the center, Esmeralda the Assistant Director of the Rape Crisis Center stopped to talk with Francisco el Penitente to find out once and for all what was going on.

The tall man in black who said he was doña Felicia’s godson had parked himself all day right in front of her office. Esmeralda had noticed him at lunch when she came out to get a carne adovada burrito from the vending truck parked right outside and saw this shadow-like man perched on the hood of his truck, a bunch of cigarette butts scattered all around him on the ground indicating to her that he had been there awhile, and unwrapping an aluminum-foiled burrito of his own. He didn’t say nothing to her then, but they exchanged long hard glances before Esmeralda went back in.

After work, Esmeralda saw him still out there, more cigarette butts around him and drinking out of a large coffee thermos. That’s when she went right up to the truck, but he was the one who started the talking. He asked her a few questions about Caridad, and she knew right away that he had a thing for her but she couldn’t understand why he was talking to her about it, much less how it was that he came to her place of employment in the first place, and before she knew it, Francisco had abducted her.